London,

British Prime Minister Theresa May agreed with the leaders of Germany and France on Thursday to uphold the Iran nuclear deal after meeting on the sidelines of an EU summit in Bulgaria, May’s spokeswoman said.

May met German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers. Trump has since imposed new sanctions.

“The leaders reiterated their firm commitment to ensuring the deal is upheld, stressing that it is important for our shared security,” the spokeswoman said.

“They pledged to work with the many parties to the deal to this end. The leaders stressed that Iran must continue to meet its own obligations under the deal.”

Merkel said EU countries agreed the Iran nuclear deal was “not perfect” but insisted it should be preserved, after the US withdrawal threw the accord into doubt.

“Everyone in the European Union shares the view that the agreement is not perfect, but that we should remain in this agreement and conduct further negotiations with Iran on the basis of other issues such as the ballistic missile programme,” Merkel said as she arrived for the summit.

Macron said the bloc was working to keep the existing agreement alive “so that our businesses can remain” in Iran. This effort would run alongside work to “pursue negotiations on a vital broader agreement,” Macron said.

“The 2015 agreement needs to be completed by a nuclear agreement beyond 2025, an agreement on ballistic activities and (Iran’s) regional presence,” Macron said.

Meanwhile, the European Commission will launch on Friday the process of activating a law that bans European companies from complying with US sanctions against Iran and does not recognise any court rulings that enforce American penalties.

“As the European Commission we have the duty to protect European companies. We now need to act and this is why we are launching the process of to activate the ‘blocking statute’ from 1996.